Empowering Clinicians

Abstract

This chapter weaves together the various themes presented in earlier chapters: ethics and the self; informal versus formal ethical discourse; fast and slow thinking; the embeddedness of informal ethical discourse in the various interpretive communities of health care; the need to rely on, and use, informal ethical discourse in teaching health care ethics to trainees; and clinicians' need to rely on themselves and their colleagues in determining how to act ethically. The central theme of this book is remarkably straightforward. Ethics starts with, and ends with, the self. Our informal ethical discourse, which emerges from our individual social experience and all it facets, is legitimate, powerful, and persuasive. It is the form of ethical discourse used by all but a tiny handful-perhaps several thousand, less than one in a million-of the earth's seven billion inhabitants. It is used daily, and exclusively, in business and in politics, as well as in private or personal interactions. It is our natural and first ethical language, and an effective and clear means of communication. It is sophisticated enough to address the most complicated problems that we face as individuals and groups CHAPTER 11 Keywords